Preserving the Living Past: John C. Merriam's Legacy in the State and National Parks.(Crow's Range: An Environmental History of the Sierra Nevada)(Book review)

PRESERVING THE LIVING PAST: John C. Merriam's Legacy in the State and National Parks

By Stephen R. Mark (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005, 204 pp., cloth, $39.95)

CROW'S RANGE: An Environmental History of the Sierra Nevada

By David Beesley (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2004, 390 pp., cloth $39.95)

John Muir called the Sierra Nevada mountain chain, the "Range of Light." John C. Merriam believed that such beautiful, magnificent, natural features could inspire and educate people, achieving another form of "light." These volumes, well-written and extensively researched, offer fascinating insight into complimentary subjects: …